Spectrum Equity is pleased to announce a majority recapitalization of Tenstreet, the leading provider of driver recruiting software and workflow solutions for the trucking industry, by Providence Equity Partners. Spectrum and Tenstreet Co-Founder and CEO Tim Crawford will maintain minority stakes. We’re thrilled to build on our longtime partnership with Tim and to join forces with Providence in this next phase of growth.

Spectrum originally acquired a majority stake in Tenstreet in 2016. Our investment thesis was grounded in our conviction that market forces were combining to make driver shortages a critical problem for the trucking industry. Carriers have always struggled to find, hire, and retain drivers because of the difficult, high-risk, monotonous nature of the job. However, e-commerce trends, increasing safety and compliance measures, and telematics were exacerbating the problem. On top of that, the industry’s approach to managing this shortage was often manual, paper-based, and ineffective at keeping pace with evolving safety and compliance demands.

Over the course of our partnership, Tenstreet has further cemented its status as the industry’s leading network of truck drivers, helping to connect them with thousands of carrier customers who are seeking to recruit, train, and retain their services.

Tenstreet: Connecting drivers and carriers, creating a powerful two-sided network effect

Tim and his team have continued to invest substantial time and energy into building great products. Beyond the company’s core recruiting functionality, complementary modules like marketing, onboarding, training, safety, and retention have allowed Tenstreet to sell more to both new and existing clients, and to become more ingrained in their customers’ day-to-day workflows. In addition, we have invested significant resources into building a highly successful inside-sales motion, such that sales and marketing resources have increased over five-fold over the course of our partnership. As a result, revenue growth has averaged over 30% annually.

Having had prior success in software with portfolio companies in places such as Kentucky, Kansas, Newfoundland, and Wisconsin, Spectrum has long advocated that great, capital-efficient companies can be built anywhere, and frequently exist outside of the traditional Bay Area and Northeast tech hubs. Tenstreet is further evidence of this. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company was founded in 2006 by five co-founders who spent many years doing the heavy-lifting necessary to build a two-sided network of carriers and drivers, all the while bootstrapping their way to success.

We are extremely excited about the next chapter. Tenstreet’s products remain in high demand, and we see significant opportunity to further penetrate the for-hire carrier market; continue to build and upsell new products; devote significant resources to the Private Fleet segment; and to pursue new verticals. We look forward to our continued partnership with Tim and the entire team at Tenstreet, and welcome Providence as we work together to further scale the company.